CU Presents

Unlearning fear and embracing an ‘audacity of hope’ through performance

Anonymous — Fri, 13 Sep 2024 20:09:44 +0000

Unlearning fear and embracing an ‘audacity of hope’ through performance Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 09/13/2024 - 14:09

Rachel Sauer

In newest chapter of ongoing ‘Conversation Series,’ CU Boulder’s Helanius J. Wilkins explores concepts of belonging and being heard

The seeds of the dance were planted in walks.

It was 2020, and the way Helanius J. Wilkins saw it, COVID-19 wasn’t the only pandemic. “Structural racism in our country is also a pandemic,” he explains, a fact that gained a spotlight following the May 2020 killing of George Floyd.

“Those were the two seeds that really launched me into this journey,” says Wilkins, an associate professor and director of dance in the University of Colorado Boulder Department of Theatre and Dance. “I have a saying that I meet adversity by actioning through the arts, which is me finding my footing again inside of all of those things.

Helanius J. Wilkins, a CU Boulder associate professor of theatre and dance, created “The Conversation Series: Stitching the Geopolitical Quilt to Re-Body Belonging” as a path to unlearn fear and create opportunities for listening. (Photo: Paul Kieu. (c)2023)

“In 2020, I was noticing what was happening to me in that time, and what came to light was that I basically was in a place of a lot of fear. I was afraid to leave my own place, I was afraid to be in public in the body that I’m in.”

So, he began walking—every day, by himself, same time, same path, sometimes up to 16 miles. It was his way of reorienting himself to and in his surroundings and creating space for his surroundings to reorient him.

“This work in so many way is me walking across the country and inviting others to walk with me to expand their sense of belonging,” he explains of the newest chapter of his ongoing work “The Conversation Series: Stitching the Geopolitical Quilt to Re-Body Belonging,” premiering this weekend in the Roe Green Theatre.

“The vision for this work was to create a path for me to unlearn fear, to create a path for others to unlearn fear, to create a greater sense of belonging and opportunities to listen to one another. We can’t have belonging unless we come together and listen.”

‘Conversation is a passage’

In broadest terms, “The Conversation Series: Stitching the Geopolitical Quilt to Re-Body Belonging” is a “collaborative, immersive work, performed by two men with different racial and cultural backgrounds” who perform an “ongoing and always shifting dance-quilt, confronting and celebrating heritage, resilience, justice and hope.” The work centers belonging as a way to “disrupt the erasure of silenced stories and forge paths towards justice/equitable landscapes. ‘The Conversation Series: Stitching the Geopolitical Quilt to Re-Body Belonging’ is a dynamic intersection of contemporary dance, performance art, technology (video and interactive gaming), music, fashion and design.”

Helanius J. Wilkins, left, and Brandon Welch, right, perform “The Conversation Series: Stitching the Geopolitical Quilt to Re-Body Belonging” as an “ongoing and always shifting dance-quilt, confronting and celebrating heritage, resilience, justice and hope.” (Photo: Paul Kieu. (c)2023)

A key to all of it, Wilkins says, is conversation and listening. As he was conceptualizing it, he had conversations with people across Colorado—in rural and urban settings, on the Front Range and Western Slope, in mountain resorts and small towns.

What he heard is that “everyone is interested in belonging, everyone is interested in their stories being heard and seen and everybody’s interested in their histories being protected in some way, shape or form,” Wilkins says. “The key is how we get to that and find those meeting points.”

He found a nexus between the art of conversation and listening, the art of dance and social justice because “there is no social justice without the body. We have to bring our bodies to the frontline to make the changes that we desire to see. What this work is for me is it’s a way of bringing forward two bodies in this current moment, bringing two bodies to the frontline, choosing to be at the frontline, to work together to figure out what it means to coexist.

“What I’m not striving to do is tell someone else’s story, because it’s not mine to tell, but I can reveal my story and show how I’m grappling with someone else and how I can understand what we are in relationship to these other stories.”

If you go

What: “The Conversation Series: Stitching the Geopolitical Quilt to Re-Body Belonging”

Where: Roe Green Theatre

When: 7:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 13, and 2 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 14

Learn more

For Wilkins, performance feels, in many ways, like a continuing conversation and an invitation to lean in with curiosity and ask perhaps the biggest question: “What does it mean to create the world that we deserve, one that can work for everyone?” he says. “What does it mean to sit with that for 90 minutes and to dream, to hear bits and pieces of how people are grappling with reflections on ancestry or the present while we’re also trying to work and construct a future that we don’t know?”

The performance, Wilkins says, reflects his “audacity to hope” and his commitment to “knowing or feeling that things can be different and that we can find a space where more people feel a sense of belonging and where more of us can come together.

“I hope that audience members walk away hopeful—hopeful because conversations are happening and we’re invited to join them. Conversation is a passage, but it doesn’t have to be the end point, there are ways in which audiences will be able to continue the journey with me in some way, shape or form.”

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In newest chapter of ongoing ‘Conversation Series,’ CU Boulder’s Helanius J. Wilkins explores concepts of belonging and being heard.

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Alter/Altar showcases CU grad student choreography

Anonymous — Mon, 13 Feb 2017 23:26:33 +0000

Alter/Altar showcases CU grad student choreography Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 02/13/2017 - 16:26

Arneshia Williams, an MFA candidate in dance at CU Boulder, didn’t get any formal training in her craft until adulthood. Before that, she learned everything she knew about dance from services on Sunday mornings.

“That’s where my training started: inside the church,” Williams says. “I saw my elders shouting and moving with the music in response to a spiritual message. That evolved to me watching MTV and BET videos and dancing along. I wasn’t actually ‘trained’ until I hit 18.”

Few dancers at CU have researched how faith influences movement, but for Williams, it’s a fascinating subject. Her choreographed piece—the “altar” part of a joint concert titled “Alter/Altar”—gets its inspiration from liturgical dance, a name given to movement that serves as an expression of worship to a higher power. Its premiere runs March 3-5 in CU’s Charlotte York Irey Theatre.

Spiritual expression takes many forms, from ballet to Hip-Hop to a gospel choir’s back-and-forth sway. Williams incorporates all of this and more—shouting, West African dance, jazz, house—in a piece that she hopes exposes the creativity, intelligence and power of cultural practices with African roots.

“I’m hoping people take away an understanding that belongs to all humanity: We are here; We are important,” she says. “My hope is that we enact principles that speak to this truth by practicing awareness and action.”

Gwen Ritchie, an MFA student who shares the bill with Williams, also hopes she can “alter” audiences’ views on traditional hierarchy in dance with her work.

“I challenged myself to make a piece that was completely improvisational,” she says.

That’s quite a feat, given that spontaneity is a tricky thing to choreograph. She was moved to try it out after years of dancing in companies where, as she puts it, “I was an empty vessel for a choreographer to fill up.” She wanted to give dancers more agency with improvisation, which essentially puts her, as the choreographer, on an equal footing with the dancers.

“It’s interesting that, in our culture, we place so much value on authorship,” Ritchie says. “In dance, the choreographer is usually the one credited for creating the vision. With improvisation, the power dynamic can change with the shift of a foot. Who’s in charge? It’s difficult to figure out.”

Ritchie says improvisational dance gets a bad rap in the industry. There’s a misconception that it’s so spontaneous that it all comes out looking incoherent and incohesive. But she says what the critics are missing is that good improvisational work is more intentional than they might think. It’s built on the practice of listening for cues, of responding kinetically to each evening’s unique performance environment. Ritchie says the audience itself will provide some of those cues—she’s that serious about the importance of collaboration in art.

“When I teach, I’m coming from this perspective of, ‘Look, I don’t have all the information, and I’m here to learn from you, too,’” she says. “When we fall into prescribed roles in a power structure, there isn’t always this empathy or listening … and I want to try to change that.”

Performances
Friday, March 3, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, March 4, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, March 5, 2 p.m.

All events take place in the Charlotte York Irey Theatre.

Tickets for Alter/Altar start at $16. To purchase tickets, visit the CU Presents box office in person (972 Broadway), call 303-492-8008 during business hours or visit us online anytime. Note: All online and phone orders are subject to a service fee. To schedule interviews or for other media information, contact Jill Kimball at jill.kimball@colorado.edu.

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Colorado Shakespeare Festival announces its 60th season

Anonymous — Mon, 31 Oct 2016 20:53:52 +0000

Colorado Shakespeare Festival announces its 60th season Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 10/31/2016 - 14:53

CSF nods to the past and looks toward the future June 11-Aug. 13, 2017

Next summer, the Colorado Shakespeare Festival celebrates its 60th season with performances of the plays that started it all.

In a nod to the past, CSF’s Summer 2017 lineup will remount the plays audiences saw in its original 1958 season: The Taming of the Shrew, a laugh-out-loud audience favorite; Julius Caesar, a classic political thriller; and Hamlet, Shakespeare’s undisputed masterpiece.

The season also includes Tom Stoppard’s fresh, funny Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, which retells Hamlet from the perspective of two minor characters, and two exclusive Original Practices performances of the rarely seen Henry VI, Part 3. At the end of the summer, CSF will have completed the Shakespeare canon for a second time.

“This particular season has been three years in the making,” says CSF Producing Artistic Director Timothy Orr. “Revisiting the original season of the Colorado Shakespeare Festival is not only a great way to look back across 60 incredible years of Shakespeare in Boulder, but it’s also a fantastic way to embark on the next 60 years.”

The 2017 season opens Sunday, June 11 and runs through Aug. 13. Season tickets are available beginning Oct. 31, 2016 at 10 a.m. online at coloradoshakes.org, over the phone at 303-492-8008 and in person at the CU Presents box office, 972 Broadway, Boulder. The box office is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and is located in the University Club building on the CU Boulder campus.

The 2017 season will feature several notable milestones:

Each cast member of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead and Hamlet will play the same role in both productions. Audiences who want to compare and contrast the two plays will have a few chances to see both productions in the same day on the indoor stage.
Next summer’s production of Hamlet will be CSF’s ninth since 1958, but it will be the first production mounted indoors on the University Theatre stage. Says Orr, “We want to see this piece done close, in an intimate space, as the riveting chamber piece it was intended to be.”
Henry VI, Part 3 was last produced at CSF in 1969. After the 2017 performance, CSF will have completed the 37-play canon of Shakespeare’s work for a second time.
Next summer features the CSF directing debuts of Christopher DuVal and Anthony Powell. DuVal is a 16-year veteran of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, an experienced fight choreographer and an assistant professor at the University of Utah; Powell, a well-known Colorado creative mind, is the artistic director of the Boulder-based Stories on Stage and has directed productions at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.

Colorado Shakespeare Festival 2017 Season

The Taming of the Shrew
Directed by Christopher DuVal
“Sit by my side, and let the world slip: we shall ne'er be younger.”
CSF kicks off its 60th season with a zany comedy set in swinging 1940s New York City. Enter Kate, a plucky pilot who’s just returned from the fray of World War II, and her stubborn match, Petruchio. On the vibrant streets of Little Italy, the two duke it out in a battle of wits, dance the night away and discover, against all odds, a mutual respect that’s almost like being in love.
June 11-Aug. 13 | Tickets start at $20

Hamlet
Directed by Carolyn Howarth
“This above all: to thine own self be true.”
Shakespeare’s masterpiece, often considered the greatest play in the English language, returns for CSF’s 60th season. When Hamlet’s world is ripped apart by his father’s sudden death and his mother’s hasty remarriage, the young prince’s mind wrestles with his heart in a tormented quest to uncover the truth. Staged for the first time inside the intimate University Theatre, this is Hamlet as you’ve never seen it before.
June 23-Aug. 13 | Tickets start at $20

Julius Caesar
Directed by Anthony Powell
“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings…”
What makes a true leader? In the republic of ancient Rome, no one seems to know. As Rome’s leader basks in his victory and ignores a series of bad omens, jealous critics conspire to topple his regime—only to find later that their efforts were for naught. Lies, scheming and scandal meet in a spellbinding political thriller that seems all too familiar in today’s polarized times.
July 7-Aug. 12 | Tickets start at $20

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
By Tom Stoppard
Directed by Timothy Orr
“Look on every exit as being an entrance somewhere else.”
In this hilarious and mind-bending comedy by the Oscar-winning screenwriter of Shakespeare in Love, Hamlet is brilliantly retold through the eyes of two minor characters. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two bewildered schoolmates sent to pull Prince Hamlet out of his descent into madness, grapple with fate, free will and the game of life. CSF’s production brings its full Hamlet cast on stage to inhabit Stoppard’s ingenious parallel universe of wit and wisdom.
July 21-Aug. 13 | Tickets start at $20

Henry VI, Part 3
“Fearless minds climb soonest unto crowns.”
Summer 2017’s hottest ticket is Henry VI, Part 3, the latest of CSF’s widely hailed “Original Practices” productions in the iconic Mary Rippon Outdoor Theatre. With two performances of the final play in Shakespeare’s razor-sharp War of the Roses chronicle, which also inspired the hit series Game of Thrones, CSF is set to complete the Shakespeare canon for a second time. All previous “OP” shows sold out months in advance—don’t miss it!
Aug. 6 and 8 | Tickets start at $20

In a nod to the past, CSF’s Summer 2017 lineup will remount the plays audiences saw in its original 1958 season: The Taming of the Shrew, a laugh-out-loud audience favorite; Julius Caesar, a classic political thriller; and Hamlet, Shakespeare’s undisputed masterpiece.

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CU Theatre stages an all-female ‘Twelfth Night’

Anonymous — Wed, 05 Oct 2016 21:07:11 +0000

CU Theatre stages an all-female ‘Twelfth Night’ Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 10/05/2016 - 15:07

Jill Kimball

The classic romantic comedy gets a feminist makeover with director Lisa Wolpe

CU Boulder’s 2016-17 theatre season continues with a highly anticipated all-female production of Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night.” Directed by renowned Los Angeles actor, director, teacher and producer Lisa Wolpe, the production runs Nov. 4-13 in the University Theatre.

A story of mistaken identities and love at first sight, “Twelfth Night” is the original romantic comedy. In the kingdom of Illyria, a shipwrecked Viola dresses in men’s clothing to find work and turns the court of Duke Orsino upside down. Chock full of poetic soliloquies and hilarious farce, it’s William Shakespeare at his finest and funniest.

Lisa Wolpe directs a rehearsal for Twelfth Night

Wolpe says CU Boulder’s female-focused production will shine a new, feminist light on the Bard’s timeless words.

“To run this exquisite writing through the minds and hearts of eighteen strong and curious young women will no doubt offer some rare and rich rewards,” Wolpe says. “I think the gender flip will provide an opportunity for another level of wit and wordplay. It can offer both a hilarious and intelligent examination of class and gender expectations and stereotypes.”

For four centuries, Shakespeare’s world hasn’t welcomed women warmly. In the Bard’s time, women didn’t perform on stage; instead, men donned makeup and dresses to perform the few female roles in each play. But even as that changed, many women grew frustrated to find that few of Shakespeare’s female characters, including title roles, were as meaty and complex as the male counterparts.

“I think women have become rather strong in the theatre scene, and they’re looking for more of a story to play,” says Wolpe. “Playing a larger Shakespearean role is certainly in the capacity of any woman I know.”

And if anyone can say that for certain, it’s Wolpe. She founded the Los Angeles Women’s Shakespeare Company more than 20 years ago, and her passion for giving women the spotlight on stage has sparked trends in New York, in London and all over the world.

Wolpe says there’s never been a better time to experiment with gender bending or to explore the complexities of personhood and identity on stage.

“People have become very passionate about individuality and about being vocal and strong as a woman, which society has shunned in the past,” Wolpe says. “Those are great themes to explore in a play where everything’s topsy-turvy, where the king is a fool and the fool is a king.”

While “Twelfth Night” is chock full of complex themes, it’s as comedic as it is cerebral. At its heart, the play is a hilarious romp bursting at the seams with both swordplay and wordplay.

“‘Twelfth Night’ is a brilliant comedy with imaginative, exaggerated characters—clowns, pirates, drunkards, lovers and fools,” Wolpe says. “We have a terrific cast of fascinating actresses and a really talented design team. I have no doubt that we will come up with something surprising and new.”

Performances
Friday, Nov. 4, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 5, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, Nov. 6, 2 p.m.
Wednesday, Nov. 9, 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, Nov. 10, 7:30 p.m.
Friday, Nov. 11, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 12, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, Nov. 13, 2 p.m.

All events take place in the University Theatre.

Tickets for “Twelfth Night” start at $20. To purchase tickets, visit the CU Presents box office in person (972 Broadway), call 303-492-8008 during business hours or visit us online anytime. Note: All online and phone orders are subject to a service fee. To schedule interviews or for other media information, contact Jill Kimball at jill.kimball@colorado.edu.

Coming up later this season is the Second Annual New Play Festival, featuring readings of brand new works; the premiere of “Unspoken,” which follows a group of young friends living in New York City; and “The Rocky Horror Show,” a classic, outrageous musical full of campy fun, characters from grade B horror flicks, 1960s beach party jams and vintage rock ‘n’ roll.

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CU Dance’s ‘Boneless’ focuses on artistry and authenticity

Anonymous — Mon, 26 Sep 2016 18:19:09 +0000

CU Dance’s ‘Boneless’ focuses on artistry and authenticity Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 09/26/2016 - 12:19

Innovative movement with headlamps and skateboarding on display in MFA showcase

Continuing the exciting 2016-17 dance season at CU Boulder is “Boneless,” a showcase of two works by MFA students intent on uncovering who we really are underneath our society’s thick layers of commercialism and social standards. These two works, incorporating contemporary dance, animal instinct and skateboarding, come to CU’s Charlotte York Irey Theatre Oct. 21-23.

Both works in “Boneless” use richly physical movement to peer beneath the surface of human existence to discover who we are without social expectations and commercialization.

Rachel Dodson

“I’ve always been troubled by social constructs—things that tell us how we should look or feel or behave in order to be in alignment with what’s expected,” says Rachel Dodson, an MFA candidate in dance who choreographed a piece in “Boneless.” “I got curious about what happens if we strip ourselves of those expectations and give voice to what’s been silenced.”

A sensorial journey investigating the relationship between mind, body and spirit, Dodson’s piece twists and writhes, turning the self inside out to explore one’s inner landscape. In the work, performers play with light and darkness by moving with head lamps and strategically hiding and revealing parts of themselves. Movement alternates between the classical and the primal to represent the animal lurking beneath each of our carefully-curated façades.

During rehearsals, Dodson and her cast of seven dancers used their own personal experiences with times when their families, careers and looks didn’t fit traditional social norms to create their own original movements in the piece.“The feelings they generated were the same even though their experiences were different,” Dodson says. “The common threads were the feelings they had about their own personal inadequacies and the way that affected their perceptions of themselves.”

Colt Irvin, another MFA student whose work is showcased in “Boneless,” is also interested in who we really are when we leave the noise of the outside world behind. In his piece, he uses contemporary dance and skateboarding to investigate whether brands and advertising have taken away our individuality.

“If you were a skateboarder back in the day, you’d go into a skate shop and buy a board, and that was it,” he says. Now it’s, ‘What shoes and signature clothing line are you wearing, and what does your custom deck look like?’ Now people can make millions of dollars doing something that was invented in the 1970s in Southern California as a way to get to the beach.”

Irvin, an avid skateboarder himself, worries what happens when art forms, including skateboarding, food-making and digital media, aren’t given enough space to thrive in non-commercial ways.

Boneless

“When business practices take over, you lose the artistic nature of some of these things,” Irvin says.

Irvin’s piece, which features only Irvin himself and his friend and collaborator Aaron Allen, uses skateboards and Skittles to ruminate on the way money sometimes dilutes authenticity.

In the world of dance, it’s unique to see modern dance and skateboarding intertwine—but Irvin is surprised it doesn’t happen more often. He believes they’re more alike than different.

“I think they’re both fueled by what’s happening in the world politically, and they both use the full body in surprising ways,” he says. “Sometimes a trick can be so intricate and detailed, and it takes a lot of discipline to land it. It’s the same thing in dance.”

Performances
Friday, Oct. 21, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, Oct. 22, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, Oct. 23, 2 p.m.

All events take place in the Charlotte York Irey Theatre.

Tickets for “Boneless” start at $16. To purchase tickets, visit the CU Presents box office in person (972 Broadway), call 303-492-8008 during business hours or visit us online anytime. Note: All online and phone orders are subject to a service fee.

Coming up later this fall is “Open Space,” a student-produced and CU Dance Connection-created showcase, and “FRESH,” a sampler of graduate and undergraduate student works.

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CU stages Carlo Goldoni’s ‘The Servant of Two Masters’

Anonymous — Mon, 26 Sep 2016 18:08:26 +0000

CU stages Carlo Goldoni’s ‘The Servant of Two Masters’ Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 09/26/2016 - 12:08

The heartwarming masked comedy boasts classic humor for all ages

CU Boulder’s 2016-17 theatre season continues with a heartwarming, hilarious production of “The Servant of Two Masters,” a classic Italian commedia dell’arte by 18th-century playwright Carlo Goldoni. Performances of the play, directed by CU Associate Professor Tamara Meneghini, take place Oct. 19-23 in CU’s Loft Theatre.

Through physical comedy, masks and period-appropriate music, “The Servant of Two Masters” tells the story of the servant Truffaldino, who wreaks havoc when he attends to two different masters at the same time. With the electric energy and extreme farce that only commedia can supply, Truffaldino pushes the limits to appease his masters and his growling stomach, falling in love all the while.

“It’s really just a classic, fun comedy,” Meneghini says. “The students and I leave rehearsal every night laughing and smiling.”

Meneghini describes the play’s humor as the kind of good, clean fun people of all ages can enjoy.

“Everyone in the audience will be able to identify with the characters on stage largely because Goldoni did such a good job of creating such believable characters dealing with rather unbelievable situations,” Meneghini says. “He gives us all permission to laugh at ourselves.”

If the good-hearted humor doesn’t hook you, Meneghini is certain the centuries-old, rarely seen performance technique will. In true commedia dell’arte style, four of the characters wear colorful masks and have to rely on body movements to express emotions and tell the story. The result, Meneghini says, is captivating.

“This style is one of the hardest things an actor can possibly do,” she says. “It is difficult for even the best actors to pull off. I think it’s incredibly valuable for these acting students to learn how their body serves them in creating a character.”

Meneghini says she’s perhaps most excited about the role music plays in this production. The comedy called for two distinctive types of live performance: In one scene, characters with more status enjoy a baroque minuet, while in another, two servants join together to sing a rollicking folk song from Italy’s Bergamo region. The play also features 18th-century Italian arias, a Venetian folk dance (called the furlana) and a guest appearance from guitarist Rick Pruitt, known all over the West for his exceptional musicianship.

“Between the music, the movement and the masks, I think it’s going to be a ton of fun,” Meneghini says. “There’s not enough joy in the world, and I want to change that.”

Performances
Wednesday, Oct. 19, 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, Oct. 20, 7:30 p.m.
Friday, Oct. 21, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, Oct. 22, 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, Oct. 23, 2 p.m.

All events take place in the Loft Theatre.

Tickets for “The Servant of Two Masters” start at $16. To purchase tickets, visit the CU Presents box office in person (972 Broadway), call 303-492-8008 during business hours or visit us online anytime. Note: All online and phone orders are subject to a service fee.

Coming up later this season is the Second Annual New Play Festival, featuring readings of brand new works; the premiere of “Unspoken,” which follows a group of young friends living in New York City; and “The Rocky Horror Show,” an outrageous musical full of campy fun, characters from grade B horror flicks, 1960s beach party jams and vintage rock ‘n’ roll.

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CU Theatre & Dance stages ‘44 Plays for 44 Presidents’

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Aug 2016 22:22:28 +0000

CU Theatre & Dance stages ‘44 Plays for 44 Presidents’ Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 08/23/2016 - 16:22

Jill Kimball

Unique production time travels through American history in a series of mini-plays

Just in time for the United States presidential election, CU Boulder’s Department of Theatre & Dance gears up for a production of “44 Plays for 44 Presidents,” a funny and poignant whirlwind trip through American history. The production, presented in collaboration with Boulder’s own square product theatre, runs Sept. 23 through Oct. 2 in the University Theatre.

"44 Plays for 44 Presidents," written by the Neo-Futurists, tells the story of the United States through a series of two-minute scenes dedicated to each American president. The actors on stage travel through our country’s dramatic ups and downs, from its idealistic beginnings under George Washington to the grim onset of the Civil War to the increasingly polarized politics of our time. Between scenes, short musical interludes set the historical tone.

“We Americans are really interesting in that we’re very future-oriented people,” says Emily K. Harrison, a CU Boulder lecturer and the founder of square product theatre. “A play like this affords you an opportunity to learn about how a government is shaped, and it also lets you see inside the presidents’ personal lives.”

Perhaps the most exciting element of the show is what comes last: an opportunity for audiences to vote for the presidential candidate they’d like to see portrayed as the 45th president in the final two-minute scene.

“The 18-to-24-year-old demographic is one that historically doesn’t turn out for the vote,” Harrison says. “This will be a fun practice round for young students who have never been able to vote before.”

Harrison, who mounted “44 Plays” at square product ahead of the last presidential election, says she learned so much more about history from this play than she’d ever learned in childhood classrooms.

“I had no idea Theodore Roosevelt accomplished so much—it’s pretty remarkable,” she says. “And I never knew much about William Henry Harrison, but in his play we see the roots of racism and genocide, which a lot of people in this country don’t like to think about. History is not always pretty.”

The play may be packed with historical facts, Harrison says, but it’s far from preachy.

“You’re learning in a way that doesn’t feel like you’re in a classroom,” she says. “This play is for anyone who wants to look more deeply at history; it’s for anyone who just wants a mental break for a couple of hours; and it’s for everyone else looking for a little bit of both.”

Showtimes for “44 Plays for 44 Presidents”
Friday, Sept. 23, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, Sept. 24 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, Sept. 25, 2 p.m.
Wednesday, Sept. 28, 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, Sept. 29, 7:30 p.m.
Friday, Sept. 30, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, Oct. 1, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, Oct. 2, 2 p.m.

Tickets for “44 Plays for 44 Presidents” start at $20 with student, senior and youth discounts available. To purchase tickets, visit the CU Presents box office in person (972 Broadway) between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. weekdays, call 303-492-8008 during box office hours, or visit us online. Note: All online and phone orders are subject to a service fee. For press tickets, interviews or more information, contact Jill Kimball at jill.kimball@colorado.edu.

Coming up later in CU-Boulder’s 2016-17 Theatre & Dance season is the classic commedia dell’arte tale “The Servant of Two Masters,” an all-female production of “Twelfth Night” directed by Lisa Wolpe, the world premiere of “Unspoken” by Kevin Crowe, and two popular musicals, “The Rocky Horror Show” and “Peter and the Starcatcher.” Find information about all of our performances here.

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CU Dance brings female Hip-Hop luminaries to Boulder

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Aug 2016 22:15:02 +0000

CU Dance brings female Hip-Hop luminaries to Boulder Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 08/23/2016 - 16:15

Weekend of performances and talks features Teena Marie Custer, Asia One

This fall, CU Boulder brings street culture to the stage with [UN] W.R.A.P.: Women of the Cypher, a weekend-long performance event bringing together renowned female Hip-Hop scholars, artists and enthusiasts for a critical and creative exchange. From breaking to waacking to DJing, no facet of Hip-Hop will go unexplored at the event, which takes place Sept. 23-25 at CU Boulder’s Charlotte York Irey Theatre.

Hip-Hop has only recently been a research focus inside higher education, says dance division director Erika Randall. It’s rarer still to focus specifically on females within Hip-Hop culture. She’s more than happy to help start the conversation.

“We’re just really committed to causing trouble in the Theatre & Dance department, in the best possible way,” Randall says. “When students and teachers start to explore a culture that started on the streets, they question everything they know about institutionalized learning, fusion, women...and so many other things. I get really excited about that.”

If talking about Hip-Hop culture doesn’t prompt audiences to rethink the status quo, watching the [UN] W.R.A.P. performances certainly will. Some of the featured performers, known as b-girls, learned their epic moves on the street rather than at the barre.

Teena Marie Custer

B-girl Teena Marie Custer, a featured performer and Randall’s longtime best friend, is one of those artists who didn’t go to school to hone her Hip-Hop skills. Randall says “the two of us are like ‘Save the Last Dance’ come to life: I’m classically trained and she comes from really deep street training, but we’ve found we’re more similar than different.”

As a child in Pittsburgh, Custer desperately wanted to take ballet lessons, but her family didn’t have the money for them. Her only dance outlet, she says, was “to go to Hip-Hop clubs, dance with my friends or put a hat out and copy moves from MTV. That was my early dance training.” Later, she received formal training in modern dance and used elements of that to create her own unique style of urban dance theater. In the [UN] W.R.A.P. performance, Custer will unveil “My Good Side,” an exploration of our social media culture through street dance.

Hip-Hop, a subculture encompassing music performance, emceeing, DJing, graffiti art and breaking, was born on the streets of the Bronx in the 1970s and soon spread to other major urban areas. Among the early female street icons was Asia One, who has danced with the Black Eyed Peas, Rock Steady Crew and Zulu Nation. As a biracial child in Denver’s diverse Park Hill neighborhood, she never felt she belonged anywhere until she found refuge in the local Hip-Hop community. In her teen years, Asia established herself as a b-girl and graffiti artist and set up an after school dance studio for kids.

“In my area, you didn’t go on the side of town you weren’t from—you couldn’t,” she says. “So I opened up a Hip-Hop shop in an area that was neutral to gangs. Anybody could go without feeling like they would get jumped or like they were a traitor, and they met people they never would have met otherwise.”

In her ever-expanding quest to unite people from different worlds, Asia will bring together the local collective Queenz of Hip-Hop, the music group Analog Girls and other Colorado street artists for her [UN] W.R.A.P. piece, which delves into Hip-Hop’s historical roots.

Asia, the subject of a short documentary selected for the Hollywood Film Festival in 2013, says she’s faced plenty of gender discrimination in her career and can’t wait for the female-focused weekend on campus.

“I’ll be waiting to go on stage and someone will think I’m a groupie,” she says. “The idea of a woman breaking kind of mystifies some people. When I’m breaking, out of the corner of my ear, I’ve heard, ‘A girl? Really?’”

But by and large, she says, the Hip-Hop community is diverse and inclusive, a far cry from the homophobic, misogynist world many people believe it is. She hopes the weekend summit in Boulder helps a broader audience understand that.

“Whether or not you’re down with Hip-Hop,” she says, “the values that it embraces...if we could put [those] in society on a mass level, we’d have a beautiful world.”

Free Panel Discussion with Dr. Imani Kai Johnson, Naomi Braggins and Dr. Reiland Rabaka
Friday, Sept. 23, 10 a.m.

Performances
Friday, Sept. 23, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, Sept. 24, 2 p.m.
Saturday, Sept. 24, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, Sept. 25, 2 p.m.

All events take place in the Charlotte York Irey Theatre.

Tickets for [UN] W.R.A.P.: Women of the Cypher start at $16. To purchase tickets, visit the CU Presents box office in person (972 Broadway), call 303-492-8008 during business hours or visit us online anytime. Note: All online and phone orders are subject to a service fee. To schedule interviews or for other media information, contact Jill Kimball at jill.kimball@colorado.edu.

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